October Community News

Welcome to our latest edition of community news, we thought we’d share with you what we have been up to throughout the month of October to engage with the community. Hopefully inspiring them to become more active more often.

Club Games – Main event

On Wednesday 1st October Team Lewisham were represented at this years Club Games main event at the Copper Box Arena. Lewisham were represented in the Dominoes coming second overall narrowly losing to Greenwich. Whilst the Short Mat Bowlers were unable to retain their title finishing 9th overall. Su Pollard from Hi-de-Hi fame was the guest of honour at this year’s event.

When all of the sports were combined Team Lewisham finished 14th overall. We will work on getting more teams for 2026 and hopefully jump up the rankings.

SEND Camp at Alex Yee Ladywell Arena

In partnership with Access Sport and the Lewisham Disability Sports Network we once again hosted 2 days of multi-sport activities for children and young people with disabilities. Across the 2 days we offered Athletics, Boccia, Cycling, Dance and Taekwondo.

Both days were well attended with Athletics being the most popular activity, with each day seeing just over 20 kids take part in the mix of sports. Once again, we have received positive feedback from all those who have benefitted from this holiday provision.

Hypertension event

On Wednesday 22nd October Forest Hill Pools held the first of 3 Hypertension events that are planned across the borough. The other events are due to take place at Wavelengths and Glass Mill Leisure Centres in January and March 2026.

50 local residents attended this event. The event saw a range of presentations and talks on how to manage their condition, medications and other tips and tricks on how to lead a longer healthier life.

Better also had a stall to promote Healthwise and the broader leisure centre offering, the Community Sports Manager gave a presentation about the centres and what we have to offer, focusing on our Healthwise offer.

The event was organised and run by the local South East London Integrated Care Board who led the event on the day. Outside the room there was 5 stalls from local NHS services promoting things around blood pressure awareness, vaccinations to the NHS app. The African Advocacy Alliance set up a gazebo outside the leisure centre and were offering people the chance to have their blood pressure taken. They are keen to run this on a regular basis at the centres around the borough.

The event and venue received lots of positive feedback from both stall holders and attendees. Which is a credit to the help and support the team at Forest Hill Pools provided on the day.

October Half Term

Across the partnership the centres have offered a range of activities for families, these have ranged from Kids Swim for a Quid, to additional junior gym, and family swim slots.

Over the week we have had 50 kids enrolled in crash course swimming lessons across the 3 centres.

Bellingham has hosted Football Domination who have run their usual football camp. The centres also dressed their buildings for Halloween as this fell in the half term week.

Saxon Crown Swimming Club also ran additional club swimming sessions in the morning at Glass Mill, to ensure their swimmers stay in good shape over the holidays. 

Hummingbird Group - Aqua

Thanks to some funding provided by the NHS the Hummingbird group have started weekly Aqua classes for their group. (the Hummingbird Group are based in Catford and are an older adults’ group for people predominately from the Caribbean). They have got funding for 9 weeks of activity with the last session taking place the week before Christmas.

The first week saw 8 participants take place in the class with 12 participants coming in week two. 

Education My Life Matters

We have been approached by a Pupil Referral Unit style of school in Bellingham about gaining access to the centre. They are looking to come in twice a week to use the gym. We met with them to discuss the costs and logistics of this and will be looking to launch this at the start of November. We also spoke about possible day time 3G pitch usage. They hope to have between 10 – 15 regular users of the centre each week.

Amuru Spin Classes

Glass Mill in partnership with Amuru who are a black led lead charitable organisation in the borough, have been hosting Spin Classes for ethnic minority group users aged 50 and over.

Sessions have proven to be very popular with each available Spin bike (20) taken each week.

Users that have attended have enjoyed these sessions and never felt Spin would be a regular exercise for them, the oldest user to date has been 83. 

If you have a group or would like to work with us please reach out to the centres.